Last Missions
by PuffleFuzz
Summary: Basically a story about the preparation and launch of Shuttle missions STS 133 and STS 135, including a flashback or two
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Welp, boys, and girls. I'm back. With a fucked up NASA idea! I've been partially working on it over the span of 5 years, with notes and stuff. I do not wish anything that happens in the story to the characters, on to the actual people. Also, I'll be changing the age of a character to make the story a teeny bit more interesting. This is also an AU, where the Challenger and Columbia incidents never happened. I have a tendency to save people's lives.

Now that that's out of the way, let's see our setting and meet our characters.

Setting: Years Summer 2010-Fall 2011 NASA (Johnson Space Center in Texas, and Kennedy Space Center in Florida), Other places in Texas, Russia, possibly New York, space (duh)

Characters:

Chris Ferguson, commander of STS 135

Doug Hurley, STS 135 Pilot

Sandra Magnus STS 135 Mission Specialist

Rex Walheim STS 135 Mission Specialist

Steve Lindsey, STS 133 Commander

Eric Boe STS-133 Pilot

Alvin Drew STS-133 Mission Specialist

Nicole Stott STS-133 Mission Specialist

Steve Bowen * STS-133 Mission Specialist

Tim Kopra * STS-133 Mission Specialist

Mike Barrat* STS-133 Mission Specialist

Ken Ham STS-132 Commander

Tony Antonelli STS-132 Pilot

Karen Nyberg-Hurley Doug's wife

Jack Hurley*-Doug's son

Bowen replaced Kopra on STS 133 because Kopra got into an accident a month before launch. He was fine but he couldn't go on the launch,

Jack Hurley, Doug's son was just a baby when STS 135 launched, so for all intents and purposes, he's now 12

* * *

On a warm May morning, 10 men and women were standing around at NASA' Johnson Space Center, waiting for crew assignments. Due to a complete mix up on NASA's part, STS 134 was assigned and started training first, on Space Shuttle Endeavour.

A brown-haired woman looked up at one of the commanders, Steve Lindsey. He and Chris Ferguson were already assigned as commanders of STS-133 and STS-135 respectively. "Steve, do you think I'll be on 133?"

She asked. Her name was Sandra Magnus. She had hoped to be on STS 135. She had a huge crush on Chris Ferguson. Actually, they were dating. Basically everyone at NASA knew they were dating.

Steve chuckled

"Maybe. Maybe not. Don't you wanna be with Ferguson? Either way, I'm guaranteed to have a woman on my flight, and the same with Chris. Chris loves you so much."

Steve smiled, seeing the crew listings were put up. He kind of grew nervous. He'd have 5 lives in his hands. If someone died, he'd be screwed. He waited for Chris to check first.

Chris jogged over to the board. "Let's see... Me, Hurley, Walheim and... SANDRA?"

His eyes widened. That was unexpected because of Chris dating Sandra. At least everyone knew they were a thing, right? He walked back to Sandra. "Lucky me, huh? At least you don't beat me up, like somebody" he glares at Nicole, jokingly.

Nicole rolled her eyes, laughing. "Yeah, alright Chris. I like Barratt anyways"

Nicole smirked. She and Mike grew up together. Well sort of. They were in the same astronaut group, chosen in 2000. They're the third known relationship at NASA, between the astronauts at least. Chris and Sandra, and Doug and his wife Karen were the other two.

Steve jogged to the board himself, even though he pretty much knew who he'd have on his mission. He smiled weakly as he said them aloud.

"Eric Boe, Tim Kopra, Nicole Stott, Alvin Drew, and Mike Barratt. Nice. Like I said, if someone gets hurt, I'm so dead. Same with you, Fergy." he shook his head, jokingly.

Chris suddenly wondered if he was actually ready to be the commander. The shuttle program was ending in 6 years, and he just felt like he wasn't experienced enough to be the commander. Why didn't they give Rick Husband, STS-107's commander, who basically saved the lives of his crew, when there was a sudden change of the weather, and they had to land in Niagara Falls, NY. He was soon snapped out of his daze by two of his good friends. His classmate Ken Ham, and Ken's pilot, Tony Antonelli were due to launch in about 3 days.

Tony was about 5'11, tan, and dark-haired. So many interns at NASA fell for him, much to his annoyance. Ken was 5'9, and blond-haired. They had just come back from a test flight, so they were still both wearing their sunglasses. Ken spoke up.

"So who's on whose missions? Antonelli owes me $20 if I'm somewhat right. I know Chris has 4 people in total on his crew, and 6 on Steve's. Chris has Boe, Kopra, and Walheim. Steve has Hurley, Barratt, Drew, Magnus, and Stott."

Chris laughed and shook his head. "I have Hurley, Walheim, and Magnus. Steve's got: Boe, Stott, Kopra, Drew, and Barratt. Therefore, Ken owes Tony $20"

Ken frowned, handing over the money, jokingly whining. "I thought I was right for sure. Well, it's time to head back to training. Two more days until quarantine, so 9 days until launch. I'm kinda scared, but McCool keeps annoying me about it and saying I won't fuck up as Husband did in 2003."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This is by no means trying to trigger or upset people, I've just had this idea of the "what ifs" in the Columbia Disaster. I will be using some of the audio/dialogs from the actual disaster. This chapter takes place in 2003. The parts in the shuttle are very inaccurate. Also for clarity, due to Rick Husban and Rick Jones being in this chapter, Rick Jones is known as Jones to avoid confusion

* * *

On a brisk February morning, dozens of men and women were sitting in Mission Control in Houston. It was partially chaotic because the shuttle, Columbia, had a small 6-inch hole in its left wing tip from a foam piece on the external tank. Now people were arguing like children. Even the crew was arguing with the people down in Mission Control. If the circumstances weren't so horrible, it sounded just like high school drama.

Leroy Cain was leading the team, and the arguing was driving him nuts. He looked at the clock. He honestly wanted to say the orders 'Lock the doors' which made people shut up pretty quickly. He's had to do it before, and he wasn't afraid to do it again. Knowing the circumstances, he probably would have to do it again, but this time would be serious. He had one binder opened to the contingency plan steps and another to the normal crew plans. He then glanced at the main CAPCOM next to him, Charlie Hobaugh.

Meanwhile, on the shuttle, Pilot Will McCool and Commander Rick Husband were having a heated discussion about the readings they were getting. This had been going on since they entered the earth's atmosphere.

"As you can see, from the readings, someone on the ground screwed up. I'm sure it was an accident. I'm just blaming Scorch. He doesn't care that I blame him for everything that someone anonymous did. We're good friends. And I would never blame Linda. She likes me, unlike some people named Laurel." Rick glared at Will. With the plasma building up, it made Rick look 10 times more annoyed.

"Yeah alright. Whatever you say. What time are we supposed to hit Cali?" Will looked down at the earth, then back at the rest of the crew behind him.

The women, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, were directly behind them, trying not to listen to the gentlemen arguing. It was pretty safe to say that they just wanted to get out of the shuttle.

"Will, We're supposed to hit about 08:50 EST, remember?" Laurel Clark smiled. She was trying to hide her anger

Leroy got notified of 4 sensors on the left-wing going dead, and he was trying not to freak out. He was 21 when Challenger happened. Nobody was hurt too bad, thank god, but it was extreme chaos when the disaster happened. Most of the Challenger crew were still working at NASA. Dick Scobee was a flight trainer, while Christa McAuliffe was in charge of helping astronauts train in other areas.

"Keep watch of that. Scorch? Any updates on the weather at KSC?" Leroy questioned. The other Capcom, Duane Carey, was talking to EECOM about the upcoming Super Bowl after having a serious talk.

Charlie nodded "Storms are coming in for Edwards and KSC. They might have to land near Buffalo and stay there awhile. Who knows. I'm still getting input from Fergy. If they have to, I'll have someone notify the families. At least the Super Bowl is in Buffalo. Maybe we could get them free tickets to the game?"

The voice of reason that morning was Linda Hautzinger Ham. She was protective of the newbies who happened to make mistakes, and she was the Mission Management Team co-leader. Shockingly, she was on edge this morning because of all of this.

"Cain, you think I can just step out? I'm getting stressed out. I can get the 4 of you some donuts." she smirked.

Norm Knight was half focusing on the readings, and half zoning out. He was the shy flight director and just listened to Leroy and even people below him. His head shot up when he heard the word 'donuts'

"Hell yeah, I'd love donuts. Thanks, Linda," he smirked. He was reading up on a liver disease that was ailing him. He was recently diagnosed with Hepatitis B related cirrhosis. He had a very pale yellow tinge in his skin. If you didn't know him or hadn't seen him in a while, you could notice it immediately. Most of his coworkers, family, and friends didn't notice.

Suddenly, FDO, Rick Jones looked up at his readings. The left-wing was getting pretty hot. He was trying not to panic. He wanted to get Norm's attention but knew Norm was pretty busy. He was one of the people that were close to Norm but he noticed jaundice had started setting in.

"Flight FIDO… We uh have a problem. The left elevon is getting hot. Real hot." Jones looked over to Leroy. He had fear in his eyes. He had hoped the crew didn't know.

The crew did know, and their communication to the ground had cut out, at least for now. This caused chaos between the crew, especially Rick and Will. Even Kalpana was getting into the argument. "Look, guys. Could you stop arguing and focus on the task at hand?

Leroy looked at Jones, "It shouldn't be a problem. I mean, it's on CNN, so I can see what's happening. I'm still getting pretty concerned."

Jones quickly nodded. Then he checked in with Norm in their private message system. What he saw broke him. Jones didn't know exactly how bad Norm's illness was. The only thing that snapped him out of the daze was the dreaded phrase nobody wanted to hear

"GC Flight, Lock the doors" And then all hell broke loose.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Back with another Columbia disaster chapter. In the last chapter, I should have clarified that Charlie Hobaugh's nickname was/is "Scorch'. This chapter will also delve slightly more into what's happening with Stich. Chapter 2 was fun to write. I learned a lot of history. Also, I should make it clear that because of Rick Jones and Rick Husband having the same first names, Rick Jones will just be Jones. This will also be the last 2003 era chapter for a bit. I've had extreme writer's block and some health stuff has come up. Nothing detrimental.

Panic was setting in inside Mission Control. Leroy had just issued a "Lock the doors" command. Lock the doors meant secure every bit of data they could. Leroy knew the crew was going to be fine, however, he just wanted data and more information about what the hell was happening with the shuttle secure.

Rick Husband finally got the comm to the Johnson Space Center working again after consulting with someone from the Canadian Space Agency, who was relaying information to NASA. They were now over Alaska, slowly heading towards Buffalo. He was shocked when he heard Leroy say 'Lock the doors'

"Leroy, we're fine. You didn't have to lock the doors or secure data. It's not a life or death problem. If it was, we'd be dead by now. We've just got some slight drag." he assured.

Rick shook his head and grumbled something he wouldn't say to Leroy's face. He knew he shouldn't argue with the flight director. The last time he did was over a week earlier when both Mission Control and the crew learned from the International Space Station that the shuttle had a hole in its eleven.

Leroy glanced at Steve for a split second, talked to a couple of other flight controllers from both Houston and the Launch and landing control center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shit was slowly going down. Even though the crew would be fine, they were expecting to have some chaos.

"Ferguson said that the storms are moving out of Florida, but Columbia is in a position to land in Buffalo. The shuttle, as you know, has a slight issue, but we haven't figured out what it is yet. Alright. Thanks, Leinbach."

The shuttle was now over Lake Erie, 15 miles off the coast of Buffalo. Leroy was on the phone with someone from the Buffalo airport when the drag became too much, stalled the shuttle, and made a semi-graceful landing into Lake Erie.

Then tensions rose in the shuttle. Rick and Will glared at each other, trying not to get mad at each other. None of this was anybody's fault except the external tank.

"Will, wait. We gotta wait to see what mission control says to do. Other than you two killing each other. Jeez." one of the men on the mid-deck, Ilan Ramon, spoke up. He could hear the arguing before, but this time it annoyed him a little too much. He wondered what the hell his kids were thinking.

Jones knew something was wrong with his good friend, but he didn't want to pressure him about it. He had started noticing changes a few weeks ago, during a launch rehearsal. He had seen Steve acting off. Not as hyper, or as happy as usual. His gut feeling overcame his politeness and walked over to Steve. During the launch rehearsal, he'd also noticed the slight yellow tinge in Steve's skin. He'd been moody, too.

'Well, here goes nothing' Jones thought. He hopped up, bumping his knee and limping over to Steve. He was greeted by Steve.

"Hey, Jones. What did you need? If it's nothing important, can we talk?" Steve looked at him, curiously. He didn't want to deal with anything extremely chaotic other than his health right now.

Jones nodded. "Well uh… I've noticed you've been sick. What's been going on? If you don't mind me asking." He looked around, nervous.

Steve looked up, sighing. He then closed his eyes for a second before speaking.

"Jones, I was diagnosed with end-stage cirrhosis related to Autoimmune Hepatitis just after launch. I should be fine. They're still getting me situated on pills" he gave Jones the thumbs up and smiled.


End file.
